On the list: Java, Apple Maps, iPad mini, Scott Forstall, and Macs in the USA.

2012 was a roller coaster of a year for Apple and those who depend on its ecosystem. It was the first full year Apple operated under CEO Tim Cook's thumb, and there were plenty of ups and downs for Cook to ride on.

We thought we'd highlight five of the most notable Apple-related stories as we look back on the last 12 months. Some directly affect Apple's user base more than others, but they all contributed to a company going through developmental change—on the inside and out. In chronological order…

The removal of Java from OS X Web browsers

Apple's decision to kick Java to the curb was largely sparked by the new (and improved) Flashback malware outbreak earlier in the year. Although Flashback first made an appearance in 2011, the 2012 version took advantage of a Java vulnerability Apple left unpatched for months after Oracle released a fix. That decision to hold off on a fix wasn't the best PR move for Apple, but the company later made up for it—at least in the eyes of security experts—by getting rid of Java in OS X browsers altogether.

"I think that the way they've handled Java in the browser was their biggest win in 2012," noted Apple "hacker" Charlie Miller told Ars recently. Miller pointed out the payoff in writing Mac-specific exploits is still too low for most attackers, but Java exploits carry the benefit of being able to affect multiple platforms at once. "[A]nything Apple does to reduce Java's install base in OS X is a security gain that still gives them some real life improvements."

Tim Cook's public apology for iOS 6 Maps

It's not often Apple issues any kind of public apology for… well, anything. So when it does happen, it means some serious ish is going down in Cupertino. That was apparently the case just weeks after Apple's release of iOS 6. Much to Apple-watchers' surprise, the company posted an open letter in late September to its customers, signed by Tim Cook, that acknowledged Apple's shortcomings when it came to releasing a new, Google-free version of Maps for iOS.

"At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers," Cook wrote. "With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better."

The launch of the iPad mini

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica

Some Apple-watchers thought the day would never come, but Apple launched its own smaller version of the iPad only two years after Apple cofounder Steve Jobs declared 7" tablets to be "dead in the water." Apple argued that the 7.85" iPad was different from the rest of the 7" tablet market, not just because of the OS it's running, but also because of its 50-67 percent larger usable area.

Unsurprisingly, Apple declared the iPad mini's launch weekend a wild success, with sales of it plus the fourth-generation iPad setting a new first-weekend iPad sales record. Indeed, the iPad mini seems to be popular enough among the masses—especially as we head into the holidays—at its cheaper $329 price point, even though many reviewers (ourselves included) cried over the lack of a "retina" class display.

Scott Forstall ushered out of Apple

Scott Forstall presenting new iOS features during Apple's September 2012 media event.

Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica

Apple's iOS software head Scott Forstall has always been a controversial guy. He's notorious for being a hard worker with high standards, and he might not always be the easiest to get along with. The latter appears to be why Forstall found himself being ushered out of the higher ranks at Apple in October of 2012. A number of reports cited clashes with other Apple executives as the main reason Forstall couldn't be kept around for much longer. Not only was Forstall allegedly at odds with Apple designer Jony Ive, he also had reported conflicts with engineering head Bob Mansfield, among others.

A little more than a month later, Cook once again hinted at this as the reason for Forstall's exit in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. When asked about "what was wrong" with Forstall at Apple, Cook was pragmatic: "The key in the change that you’re referencing is my deep belief that collaboration is essential for innovation."

Despite the apparent "jubilation" following Forstall's departure, the news still came as a shock to many of us who follow the company closely. Forstall's influence on the design and direction of iOS is nothing to sneeze at. Although he's staying on as an advisor to Apple, the operating system may soon take a different turn now that he's no longer in charge.

Decision to manufacture (some) Macs in the US of A

Apple's Phil Schiller showing off the internals of a retina MacBook Pro in San Jose on October 23, 2012.

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica

There are some jobs that have just plain never been in the US to begin with, and the kind of large-scale electronics manufacturing that Apple does through its Asian partners are some of those jobs. That hasn't stopped the masses from calling on Apple to do at least some of its manufacturing in its home country, largely due to some of the discoveries made at Foxconn's factories in China. In the past, the company has found some evidence of child workers, "involuntary labor," and safety issues, not to mention a recent rash of suicides and disputes over pay in China.

That's why it was both a relief and a surprise when Cook announced this month that Apple would begin manufacturing a line of Macs in the US beginning in 2013. He discussed the decision in his aforementioned interview with Bloomberg, as well as a TV interview with NBC News. Cook revealed Apple has been "working on" increasing its US manufacturing for some time.

"We’re really proud of it. We could have quickly maybe done just assembly, but it’s broader because we wanted to do something more substantial," Cook told Bloomberg. "So we’ll literally invest over $100 million. This doesn't mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we’ll be working with people, and we’ll be investing our money."

Of course, one line of Macs isn't much, especially when compared against the kind of sales numbers that come from the iPhone and iPad. But the move is symbolic and could lead to increased numbers of electronics—not just from Apple—being made in the US in the future.

Have another Apple story you think should make the cut? Let us know in the comments below.

Promoted Comments

It was a story, just because commentators have been calling for it to be done for years, and Apple (along with Foxconn) have finally decided that the figures stack up to try it out.

However, US sales account for less than half of Apple's customers, and the proportion of sales to overseas markets is growing steadily. What does "Assembled in the USA" mean to someone from Europe, or Australia, or Japan, or China?

As an Australian, when I see: "Assembled in the USA", it just makes me think: "The labour to make this was clearly more expensive, where have they cut costs to compensate?". It obviously doesn't stir any patriotic response.

I'm sure Apple will be subsidising the increased labour cost for now, and it's nice to know that labour standards are adhered to. However, to be honest, the manufacturing location is a non-issue to me. If I saw an "Assembled in China" Mac mini next to an "Assembled in USA" one, I wouldn't make any extra effort to purchase the latter. They both have the same components and the same warranty, and they were both made overseas, so there's no difference to me.

I can't be the only one who thinks Forstall's dismissal is a lot like Scully firing Jobs in 1985 for being insufferable and divisive. That seemed to work out in the short run, but a million unsold Newtons later… not so much. Guess we'll see if Federighi and Ive can rally the forces to create the Next Great Thing.

I think 2013 will be quite the year for Apple (I hope)...I am really expecting to see a redesign of iOS. I hope we do.

I guess it has been a rollercoaster year, I am surprised at no mention of the falling stock prices at the end of the year. That was a pretty big deal for investors anyways I guess not so much tech really.

I've personally found the ongoing struggles with Samsung and all the rest to be quite a fascinating story for Apple this year. The big $1B win quickly muted by allegations of jury bias and the inevitable protracted resolution and appeals effectively nullifying the verdict in the short term, and now a handful of patent nullifications rearing their heads...

Of course, no other stock went up and down. Not to mention Apple often being a target of stock manipulation by unscrupulous people; or the fact of its stock being vastly underpriced based on p/e numbers compared to Amazon and other competition.

Speaking of not to mention, suicides at Foxconn should not be mentioned since suicides there are on an average lower than the general population of China. The nets went up because of public scrutiny. I suppose that's a good thing in spite of the reality of people looking for any excuse to criticize Foxconn.

Of course, no other stock went up and down. Not to mention Apple often being a target of stock manipulation by unscrupulous people; or the fact of its stock being vastly underpriced based on p/e numbers compared to Amazon and other competition.

What stock manipulation... you mean the billion dollars in back tracking the board of directors approved for SJ compensation package?

Interesting that the iPhone isn’t a story this year, but in a business sense it’s Apple’s biggest storyline.

I somewhat agree that it's exclusion is interesting -- but I can also understand it. The iPhone 5 was most notable for being less noteworthy then the pie-in-the-sky expectations that pundits always set for Apple product announcements. The iPhone 5 came with a larger 16:9 screen... almost everyone expected that. It came with LTE... almost everyone expected that. It came with a redesigned case... almost everyone expected that. It came with a redesigned dock port... well, everyone was a bit annoyed by that, but still not really surprised per se. There were no actual surprises.

I'm hopeful that 2013 will bring us a few more of those good kind of Apple surprises, myself.

I can't be the only one who thinks Forstall's dismissal is a lot like Scully firing Jobs in 1985 for being insufferable and divisive.

Since when is being insufferable and divisive is a guarantee for greatness?I'm afraid Steve Jobs was an exception.

I never said it was. Don't put words in my mouth.

Forstall had a loyal and productive team, and made good technical calls (like basing the iPhone on OS X rather than Linux or an off-the-shelf embedded OS). Reportedly, he also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. In the end, Cook apparently decided the bad outweighed the good. We'll see how that works out.

As for the much-bashed skeuomorphism, Windows 8's "authentic digital" design philosophy (90 degree corners, solid colors, etc.) seems to be the absolute opposite of that. How's that working out for Surface sales? Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water: a lot of casual users enjoy the pseudo-realistic textures.

I think the big story was Apple moving to a twice a year update cadence on the iPad.

I do not believe that this was only a one time thing, and I expect iPhone to start being updated twice a year going forward.

There's next to no evidence at this point that this was Apple's intention. I think the most obvious reason for releasing a new iPad so soon was that they simply wanted to realign their release schedules. This way, they can show off all of their new iOS devices at the same event. They've realigned launch dates before, but usually they've done it by waiting longer to release a product (like the iPhone 4S). The iPad 3 (which I own) was always just a bit underpowered for the number of pixels it pushes, especially for games. Keep in mind, too, that they wanted to introduce new connectors to their whole product line- the only real surprise was the inclusion of the A6X. If anything, the real story is one of disorganization- they shouldn't have released the iPad 3 if it wasn't ready, and putting out the "real" New iPad less than a year later amounted to a PR blunder. I see no reason, however, that they would want to strain themselves by releasing a new iPad every 6 months. We'll see if I'm right 6 months after the release of the iPad 4.

Yeah, yeah, lots of cool stuff happened during 2012. But let's not miss the small picture too. Small things have sometimes a tremendous impact on our lives. And although they go unnoticed most of the time, we shouldn't forget about them.

I feel like the US production push was almost a non-story. To gain such a large amount of positive PR for delegating manufacturing of a dying breed of your computer market to the locals seems somewhat odd and shortsighted by the press. If they had started a manufacturing push with the products that everyone knows are in Apple's long term game plan (re: mobile and laptop) it would have been a different story to me. I know, I know, beggars, choosers, et cetera.

I do think the iPad being rereleased in October may begin a more inconsistent product update cycle for the major products. Apple loses when it's customers hold out until Q4 and then overwhelm the supply chain because the don't want to miss a product refresh.

Wasn't Scot Forstall one of the main driving forces behind the heavy use of skeuomorphism in iOS and OSX?

Hopefully we'll see that being heavily reduced in the future.

SJ was a fan, Ive most certainly isn't. It'll be interesting to see what what his sub-zero minimalist take on the UI will be.

I like the skeuomorphism in Calendar and Notes, and I really didn't see why people were so zealously opposed to it. I prefer a little graphical decoration over monochrome text entry boxes and bordering lines. Then I started using Podcasts the other day. The reel-to-reel animation is just ridiculous. That must be destroyed.

I'm going to miss Forstall doing his keynote segments. I liked his enthusiastic presentation style, like he was a kid showing off his science experiment for the first time. Kind of playful in a way.

apple is firmly in bed with Foxconn, which is widely and accurately known to be habitual violator of human rights. Period. So apple caved and decided to manufacture some mac in the US.. I bet if they had their way, they would keep turning a blind eye to anything 'ugly' that might be happening along the supply chain. Foxconn is still their dirty secret to a wide majority of consumers. The apple is rotten.

Right because other companies like say Microsoft don't have their products like the xBox 360 built by foxconn....

It was a story, just because commentators have been calling for it to be done for years, and Apple (along with Foxconn) have finally decided that the figures stack up to try it out.

However, US sales account for less than half of Apple's customers, and the proportion of sales to overseas markets is growing steadily. What does "Assembled in the USA" mean to someone from Europe, or Australia, or Japan, or China?

As an Australian, when I see: "Assembled in the USA", it just makes me think: "The labour to make this was clearly more expensive, where have they cut costs to compensate?". It obviously doesn't stir any patriotic response.

I'm sure Apple will be subsidising the increased labour cost for now, and it's nice to know that labour standards are adhered to. However, to be honest, the manufacturing location is a non-issue to me. If I saw an "Assembled in China" Mac mini next to an "Assembled in USA" one, I wouldn't make any extra effort to purchase the latter. They both have the same components and the same warranty, and they were both made overseas, so there's no difference to me.

apple is firmly in bed with Foxconn, which is widely and accurately known to be habitual violator of human rights. Period. So apple caved and decided to manufacture some mac in the US.. I bet if they had their way, they would keep turning a blind eye to anything 'ugly' that might be happening along the supply chain. Foxconn is still their dirty secret to a wide majority of consumers. The apple is rotten.

Right because other companies like say Microsoft don't have their products like the xBox 360 built by foxconn....

right, and this thread is about apple not microsoft. I think foxconn is a 'top 5' notable story about apple. And my comment will get voted down into non existance.. why? People want to feel warm and fuzzy about their apple products. but your right, foxconn makes a lions share tech for many companies. Doesn't change the sentiment behind the post.

Wasn't Scot Forstall one of the main driving forces behind the heavy use of skeuomorphism in iOS and OSX?

Hopefully we'll see that being heavily reduced in the future.

SJ was a fan, Ive most certainly isn't. It'll be interesting to see what what his sub-zero minimalist take on the UI will be.

If one considers skuomorphism to be a transitional design concept, intended to make new users more comfortable with embracing a device and technology replacing existing modes of calendar, contacts, etc. usage, then regarding iOS, skuomorphism has probably run its course and it is time to be retired (provided Jony can come up with a new compelling language to replace it.)

I'm looking for loads of elegant easy functionality as opposed to leather stitching and paper shredders, any resources expended on the two latter is likely to the detriment of the former. So Go Jony, GO!